Cold case arrest made in grandma’s brutal 1994 Corona del Mar killing

A 70-year-old Dana Point man was arrested Thursday for the alleged financially motivated murder of his mother in Corona del Mar in 1994.

John Henry Van Uden III was charged in an arrest warrant issued Oct. 26 with murder, with a special circumstance allegation of killing for financial gain.

Van Uden’s 76-year-old mother, Frances M. Van Uden, was found beaten to death in the living room of her Corona del Mar home on Keel Drive on March 5, 1994. Anxious neighbors called police because they had not seen the widow in two days, and the family had issued a $50,000 reward for the capture of her killer.

Last week would have marked the 100th birthday of the mother of three and grandmother of five.